Faithful Companion
by CrackedMetal
Summary: They left the Crucible but never made it to Bad Wolf Bay. Dalek Caan's words had a different meaning to what they expected. ONE-SHOT. Please R&R. Doctor/Rose.


**A/N **I know everyone does Journey's End stuff and I've done quite a few myself but all the one's I do during Journey's End I make sure I've never read anything like them before so they are different not exactly the same thing over and over again. I hope you enjoy it, it was kind of a spur of the moment sort of thing.

**Summary: **They left the Crucible but never made it to Bad Wolf Bay. Dalek Caan's words had a different meaning to what they expected. ONE-SHOT. Please R&R.

**Disclaimer: **I, unfortunately, don't own any rights to Doctor Who. Please don't sue, I have to get my creative outlet somehow!

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**FAITHFUL COMPANION**

The Doctor was just about to step out of the TARDIS and into what they all knew was waiting for them outside; Bad Wolf Bay. Just as his hand grasped the handle of the wooden door a cry of agony sounded behind him. His head snapped around and immediately came to rest on his clone, still up near the controls but now on the floor, Jackie crouched beside him with panicked eyes looking searchingly between them both.

He rushed over to his side, Rose just behind him.

"What's happening Doctor?" Jackie asked, concerned.

The clone gasped for breath and spoke through clenched teeth. "Dalek Caan… he said… "the most faithful companion would die."" His whole body was sent into vicious shivers, almost like a seizure.

"What does that mean, who is your most faithful companion?" Jackie asked ignorantly.

Rose's eyes widened as she locked eyes with the dying clone and understood immediately. Tears built in her eyes; even though it wasn't technically her Doctor just seeing him writhing in pain with only minutes left to live was ripping her apart.

"It's himself," she whispered at the realization. "The only one he could ever count on to never leave." The thought was a strange one when put into such a meaningless sentence but the idea made her heart ache for the Doctor, understanding even more just how alone he was.

The Doctor merely nodded his head, not bothering to look up at her, already knowing she would understand, just like she always did.

"He came from regeneration energy and the process was never meant to be sustainable. The part of Donna that was transferred wasn't enough to keep the body going, he's going to fade." He explained after running his sonic screwdriver over the mans body.

He shifted away slightly and laid a gentle hand on Rose's arm, urging her closer to the fallen man. They looked into each other's eyes.

"He is still me," he was speaking directly to her now, wanting to do one good thing for this man whose only purpose in being created was genocide and death. "I know what I'd want the last thing I ever see or hear to be." He pled with his eyes for her to be strong once again and give him what he needed. A tear slipped down her cheek and she nodded, shuffling forward on her knee's and gently lifting the clone's head so that it rested in her lap, Jackie and the Doctor backing off a few meters to give them a minute alone.

Rose smiled down at the exact replica of the man she loved as best she could. "Hello." She said, tearfully.

"Hello." His response was so identical to how the Doctor had sounded after being shot by the Dalek that she had to hold a hand to her mouth to stop sobs escaping. She let her gaze shift upwards to glance fleetingly at the Doctor leaning against the consoles, needing the reassurance that he was still there, completely alive, and knowing that he had stayed in her line of sight precisely for that reason, knowing how hard it would be for her.

"How long have we got?" Her words mirrored those that she asked on the worst day of both their lives.

"About two minutes." He responded grimly.

She quietly sobbed and stroked his face lovingly, doing her best to give him his perfect last moments. "I love you, you know that don't you?"

He looked like he was going to deny it but instead nodded weakly. He reached up and tangled his hand in her loose hair. "I'm not going to say it back because you deserve to hear it from him." He didn't need to explain who he was talking about. "But I have one thing I can do."

She frowned questioningly at him. "I can give you forever." She froze; hand over his on her face, breath held in shock and anticipation.

"Rose, the regeneration energy in me is suspended because it never finished its given process when the Doctor transferred it to the hand. I wasn't a living entity without it, which is why this body can't sustain it. But if it were to be bonded with an organism that is already a living being it has the power to tie permanently to that being, the body and the energy feeding each other in tandem." She huffed out a huge breath and sucked another in, taking in what he was saying to her and hardly able to believe it.

Her gaze shot up to the Doctor who was in the middle of a discussion with Jackie, probably feeling her gaze but not looking up to return it. "Forever?" She whispered, half to herself, half to the clone, tears of happiness building in her eyes to join those of sorrow for the unfair un-life that lay below her.

He nodded again and weakly smiled at her. "The energy is straight from him, which means that when he dies you will two, because you'll be sharing the same life force."

"Why didn't he say anything?" She asked him, feeling maybe the Doctor didn't want it anymore, otherwise he would have told her.

"Because he didn't think of it," he told her reassuringly. "He shut himself off a long time ago to idea's of bringing you back because you can't imagine the amount of time he spent trying to find one. For every hope in his hearts they were crushed ten-fold every time it didn't work so he doesn't allow himself to think it anymore, doesn't allow himself to hope." Her gaze was drawn back to his when he tugged her head closer to his, voice growing softer. "But the part of Donna in me and being human has forcibly opened everything back up and I'm so glad it has because now you both can be happy."

As he drew her so that their lips were a hairs-breadth away she slid her hands to his chest and a millisecond before their lips met she whispered out the last words she would ever say to him and the last he would ever hear.

"Thank you."

The clones fingertips connected with her temples and his lips parted just slightly under hers, breathing out as a tickling feeling flew down her throat and spread through her body, hands clenching and toes curling at the strange sensation.

The Doctor and Jackie looked over at them as at every point of connection between the two began to glow a soft gold, a silent breeze sweeping through the TARDIS as the energy began to flow out of the dying clone and into Rose, lips no longer connected and eyes open, diminutive suns shining into each other.

Rose let out a loud gasp and her head snapped back as she absorbed the last to the energy, body buzzing with raw energy as it crawled through her body and sunk in to every cell, heart thumping wildly before slowing down to a pace that was barely half as fast as before, blood flowing more easily throughout her body as her whole being felt lighter, like the gravity around her had lessened.

She looked down sadly as the glow faded from what was the clone and revealed an ordinary hand lying pathetically on the grating, nothing left of the clone or its life.

She sucked in an easy breath and grinned at how light the air seemed as it flowed into her lungs, mind less cluttered than before therefore making it easier to comprehend everything that had been happening. She somehow knew that from now on she'd be understanding a lot more of the Doctor's scientific babble, or at least would retain more information.

With the thought of her wonderful Time Lord she stood and looked up to see her mother looking stone cold shocked on the other side of the TARDIS and the Doctor, who had moved forward towards her and was now staring in something a kin to amazement, joy, giddiness and curiosity all rolled into one, along with the mandatory worry.

She locked eyes with him, feeling his emotions with more clarity than before, and with the TARDIS humming through her mind and room she smiled uncontrollably at him, having a feeling he had been listening in on the conversation.

He saw that perfectly familiar grin, tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth in a way that was so exactly his Rose, and he returned it with the widest smile he could muster. Stepping forward and wrapping her in his arms he muttered one, ecstatic word as he felt her body in exactly the same way, yet a connection running through the two of them that hadn't been there before.

"Brilliant!"

**A/N So, what did you think? No, I'm not continuing, this is a one-shot, and I'm not doing a sequel, although the sequel to Journey's Beginning could almost fit as a sequel to this, that will be started in a few weeks if you want to read it, once I've finished my other Doctor Who multi-chapter fic. "Intervention." Hope it was good and PLEASE REVIEW!**

**Thanks,  
Metal.**


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